WSB-TV reported Tuesday night that there are allegations of voter registration fraud against a Democratic group, The New Georgia Project, which is linked to Ebenezer Baptist Church’s Rev. Raphael Warnock. The right wing pounced immediately.

The New Georgia Project was subpoenaed by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who happens to be a Republican. Kemp told WSB-TV that he received complaints from six counties about forgery on voter registration forms and that voters were being falsely told they were required by law to re-register.

Kemp told WSB-TV, “We’re just not going to put up with fraud. I mean, we have zero tolerance for that in Georgia so we’ve opened an investigation and served some subpoenas.” “At the end of the day this is not going to be about politics. This is about potential fraud which we think happened.”

Rev. Warnock issued a statement saying he hoped the investigation was “not intended to thwart efforts to enfranchise voters” in Georgia.

Of course, the Republicans pounced on this latest ‘revelation.’ Gov. Nathan Deal’s (who is mired in an ethics scandal) spokesman Brian Robinson tweeted that Democrat Jason Carter was tied to the allegations. David Perdue’s camp also pounced, with spokeswoman Megan Whittemore issuing the following statement:

The serious allegations of illegal activities and potential fraud from liberal voter registration groups are outrageous and should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. As outlined in Michelle Nunn’s well-documented campaign plan, since Democrats cannot win on the issues they are aggressively trying to expand the electorate by any means necessary. The fact that an organization led by a well-known Nunn supporter would attempt to illegally register voters is unacceptable and reminiscent of the Obama-political machine’s ACORN scandal. There is nothing more fundamental to our democratic process than maintaining the integrity of our elections and any attempt to tamper with them is deplorable.”

Um, the timing of the subpoena is very suspect, with the upcoming November elections. This comes as state Sen. Fran Millar pitched a hissy-fit over early voting in DeKalb county and the large numbers of black voters it would benefit. Yep, David Perdue’s people are invoking the word ACORN.

GA GOPer Fran Millar Upset Early Voting Will Draw Large Number of Black Voters (Photo credit: GA State Senate)

Georgia state Sen. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) is against early voting in DeKalb County because of the high concentration of black voters. And Reince Priebus & Co. would have you think the Republican Party isn’t about voter suppression. Millar is vowing that October 26th will be the last time Sunday voting will be allowed in DeKalb County. One of the polling stations that will be used for early voting will be at the Gallery at South DeKalb, which is located in a predominantly black community.

How ironic! Michelle Obama comes to town and Chicago politics comes to DeKalb.

For the third time in recent months Governor Deal appointee Interim CEO Lee May has disappointed those of us that hoped he could help bring the county together.

First, he assembles a task force of 15 with no elected Republicans to review various aspects of county government. I called his hand and Representative Jacobs and I were asked to serve on the group. This seems like a good idea since legislation will be required for many changes.

Second, he schedules meetings throughout the county with Tucker being the only north location. Again, I called his hand and several north locations were added with little publicity.

Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.

Is it possible church buses will be used to transport people directly to the mall since the poll will open when the mall opens? If this happens, so much for the accepted principle of separation of church and state.

Interim CEO May says this election decision is an administrative matter and he can unilaterally make this decision. I don’t think this is necessarily true and we are investigating if there is any way to stop this action.

This may be another reason to eliminate the CEO position.

I have spoken with Representative Jacobs and we will try to eliminate this election law loophole in January. Galloway summed it up, “Democrats are showing their hand on how they might boost their numbers”. For this to be called a “non-partisan opportunity” by Interim CEO is an insult!

Another first for DeKalb! So much for being inclusive.

Now all that’s left for the black voters of DeKalb County to do is to come out in droves come October 26, so this lunatic can go nuts. I didn’t realize the right to vote was only reserved for whites. In Fran Millar’s rebuttal to a scathing rebuke by DuBose Porter, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, he pulled out his DeKalb NAACP award, as a way of saying he’s not against black voter suppression.

This is not a partisan issue, as Mr. Millar’s statement would suggest. It is certainly not a racial issue. And that he would argue otherwise is shameful and disturbing. Senator Millar’s statement that he would prefer “more educated” voters rather than those who attend “several large African-American mega churches” in DeKalb County is a clear and unabashed echo from our ugly and painful racial past. How does he propose to determine who is more educated? Literacy tests? Grandfather clauses? Poll taxes? We have been there before.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Didn’t Build the Republican Party They are Trying to Tear Down

COMMENTARY: As an independent, I am appalled at how the Republican Party has moved to the extreme right, at the prodding of right wing evangelicals and social conservatives, who define Biblical truths to suit their myopic views of life, including women’s rights. I very open to giving presidential candidate Mitt Romney a hard look as someone I could possibly have voted for in the general elections in November. But given the trajectory the Republican Party is on to alienate women, blacks, gays and lesbians, as well as Latinos, then I will cast my vote for Barack Obama. Some on the right laud Mitt Romney’s ‘bold’ vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, who has brought two other people on the ticket by virtue of his questionable cosponsoring record and his hypocritical love of an atheist, though he professes to be a ‘faithful’ Catholic. Those two people are Rep. Todd Akin and controversial writer Ayn Rand. Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan because he was bearish on his chances of beating President Obama and he is being overshadowed by a hypocrite and a liar. Wait, how could I forget, Paul Ryan is a carbon-copy of Mitt Romney — flip-flopper and Etch-A-Sketch master rolled into one. Paul Ryan is still viewed negatively by most Americans and the Romney campaign hasn’t seen a bounce in the poll numbers from this ‘desperate’ pick.

Republicans, Led by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Attacking the Rights of Women to Make Personal Decisions About Pregnancy from Rape and Incest.

Rep. Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape rarely leads to pregnancy because the woman’s body has mechanisms to shut that pregnancy down” remark didn’t come from a place of total ignorance. People who share his political ideology in Congress believe the same garbage he does. He just said what most Republicans think to be true about women. He just let the cat of out the bag. That’s all. The mere fact that the Republican convention platform doesn’t specify that abortion should be allowed when a rape or incest is involved reinforces the fact that most Republicans share Todd Akin’s views, including Mitt Romney and especially Paul Ryan. In short, Todd Akin = Paul Ryan=Mitt Romney. More right wing hypocrisy engineered by a bunch of social conservatives, who are defending Todd Akin. The Republican Party as we know it is in disarray and leading us back to the Jim Crow era where blacks had to go to extraordinary lengths to vote, by passing a poll test– in this case, they have to get a specific type of identification to vote, in other words, that identification is comparable to that Jim Crow literacy test, which was outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I might also add, former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had suggested bringing back a version of the poll test. Here’s a link to an actual poll test used in Alabama: http://www.crmvet.org/info/litques.pdf.

Franklin County, OH, Republican chairman Doug Preisse couldn’t even bear to hide his goal of suppressing black voters in his county. He had no qualms about saying they don’t want to cater to the black community. But it’s okay to cater to the ultra-rich like Sheldon Adelson, who is trying to buy the election for Mitt Romney. He backed Newt Gingrich early in the process and that went nowhere, much like his bid to unseat Barack Obama and replace him with Mitt Romney, whose business record we still can’t explain in any amount of coherence or even see his tax returns.

The New York Times has an interesting editorial out that slams the GOP platform as “mean-spirited and intolerant” representing the face of Republican politics in 2012. I am ashamed that not one female Republican lawmaker denounced Rep. Todd Akin’s claims nor has one stood up for women’s issues in any shape or form.

The draft demands that the government “not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage,” which could bar abortion coverage on federally subsidized health-insurance exchanges, for example.

The platform praises states with “informed consent” laws that require women to undergo medically unnecessary tests before having abortions, and “mandatory waiting periods.” Those are among the most patronizing forms of anti-abortion legislation. They presume that a woman is not capable of making a considered decision about abortion before she goes to a doctor. The draft platform also espouses the most extreme Republican views on taxation, national security, military spending and other issues.

Over all, it is farther out on the party’s fringe than Mr. Romney ventured in the primaries, when he repudiated a career’s worth of centrist views on issues like abortion and gay marriage. But the planks hew closely to the views of his running mate, Paul Ryan, and the powerful right-wing. Mr. Romney has a chance to move back in the direction of the center by amending this extremist platform. It will be interesting to see if he seizes it. Source: NY Times

As a black professional woman, I could no more vote for Mitt Romney on the basis of their attack on women’s rights, than on the perceived slight of the middle class and poor at the expense of the wealthy. Under Paul Ryan’s proposed budget plan, the rich would get an early Christmas gift, while the poor, middle class and seniors would get kicked in the ass. Mitt Romney and his campaign are waging a dirty campaign fraught with lies and smears, such as the series of welfare ads against President Obama that have been fact-checked by neutral parties, who said they are patently false. I am sad to say, the ‘you didn’t build that’ mantra applies to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Why? You see, they didn’t build the early Republican Party, that stood for decency and respect, including the abolition of slavery in America. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are certainly among those who want to tear down what the party stood for and replace it with a party teetering on the brink of extremism. Hey Mitt and Paul, you didn’t build that!

You can run but you can’t hide, the truth always comes to light. Franklin County, OH, Republican Doug Preisse voted to block Democratic efforts to expand voting hours. In an email to the Columbus Dispatchhe wrote, “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.” He reacted to Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern calling this unfair as “bullshit.”

Buzzfeed:“I said I believe that there’s a line of how far that taxpayers should have to go to match a specific political operation, and that’s what I mean.”

Suppression of black voters in Florida: Former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer admitted that the party had meetings about “keeping blacks from voting,” in other words, voter suppression. Salon has an in-depth commentary on the alleged black voter suppression:

In the deposition, released to the press yesterday, Greer mentioned a December 2009 meeting with party officials. “I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting,” he said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He also said party officials discussed how “minority outreach programs were not fit for the Republican Party,” according to the AP.

The comments, if true (he is facing felony corruption charges and has an interest in scorning his party), would confirm what critics have long suspected. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is currently facing inquiries from the Justice Department and pressure from civil rights groups over his purging of voter rolls in the state, an effort that critics say has disproportionately targeted minorities and other Democratic voters. One group suing the state claims up to 87 percent of the voters purged from the rolls so far have been people of color, though other estimates place that number far lower. Scott has defended the purge, even though he was erroneously listed as dead himself on the rolls in 2006.

Of course, the right will shrug this off as Jim Greer having a grudge against the Florida Republicans because of his criminal issues. Voter suppression is real and shouldn’t be ignored.